Urban sprawl has been criticized for its disproportionate impact on the environment. Yet urban areas are in fact less land-intensive than recent rural development patterns. Residential first-movers into such virgin areas may spark waves of ensuing development without incorporating the true...

Using a simplified theoretical model, we illustrate the potential existence of a market failure in the location of economic activity, which could lead to an exaggerated concentration in the core region. Based on this, we analyze whether a public policy intervention of decreasing the mobility...

This analysis examines the effects of reducing the supply of foreign-born labor on the Idaho economy. We estimate effects on gross state product, state and local tax revenue, total economic output, employment, wages, and changes in household welfare measured as equivalent variation. Estimates of...

This paper is concerned primarily with the economic and welfare consequences of federal redistributive grants to regional governments. We use a model that has two regions, each with households, firms, and a regional government as well as a federal government. The households, firms, and regional...

This paper uses a monocentric city model to examine the effects of big box retailing on local retail prices, land values and utility. Relative to small local retailers, the big box offers a price discount that increases in its marginal cost advantage. Big box entry reduces local retail prices...

We analyze the impact of economic development policies and highway infrastructure improvements on growth of per capita income and jobs in Michigan counties. The policies considered for analysis have significant impact on growth outcomes. However, this effect is non-linear. Significant...

This study uses modeled Small Area Estimates data to analyze the labor market influences on child poverty rates in local areas. These data support analysis of small geographic areas as well as at different points of the business cycle. Statistical tests appropriate for data with geographic and...

Using U.S. county data from 1990 and 2000, a family of spatial models examining growth in population and employment are reported. Special attention is paid to the role of microenterprises--firms with less than five employees--in predicting economic growth. Results suggest that microenterprises...

This paper applies recent developments in forecasting spatial process models to estimate the impact of input shocks on China's 1999 gross value added output (GVAO) in agriculture. A Cobb-Douglas production function allowing total factor productivity to vary across regions is used to forecast the...

Under- and overeating (based on calories) are different problems than being under- and overweight (based on BMI); they thus require different economic prescriptions. To study these differences, I use a quantile regression method that allows an examination of covariate effects at different points...